Tel Aviv Stock Exchange Closes Unchanged

The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange closed relatively unchanged Wednesday on light turnover, as many of the exchanges around the world were closed for the Christmas holiday.

• TASE Gains Ground as IDB Closes Up 25%
• Israeli Shares Rise on U.S. Data
• Market Report / Dollar Sinks Below 3.50 Again

The blue-chip Tel Aviv-25 Index and the broader Tel Aviv-100 Index closed more or less unchanged, at 1,342 points and 1,211 points respectively. The TA-25 is up 13% for the year, so far, while the TA-100 is up 15.5%. Technology shares were down 0.3% yesterday, while biomed shares were up 0.1% and real estate shares were up 0.2%. Oil and gas shares dropped 0.6%. Total turnover was a paltry 611 million shekels, about half the daily average for the year.

Earlier in the day, exchanges in Asia closed with gains on light turnover. Exchanges in Europe and the Americas were closed for the holiday. Earlier this week, European shares had closed with gains to mark their best pre-Christmas week since 1999.

Notable shares in Tel Aviv included Elbit Medical, which gained 9.8% after announcing yesterday morning that subsidiary Gamida Cell planned to float in New York based on a market cap of 250 to 300 million shekels. Elbit Medical’s parent company, Elbit Imaging, dropped 0.7%.

IDB Holding dropped 1.2%. Israel Security Authority officials said on Tuesday that the company’s buyer, Moti Ben Moshe, seemed to be legit.

Sanlacol gained 11% for no discernable reason.

Summit Real Estate Holdings gained 15%, after announcing earlier this week that it would be buying loans for two asset portfolios in Germany.